He played some days ago the U-20 Division "A" European Championship in Croatia, finishing as the best italian scorer (17.3) even he was two years younger than most of the players. Without resting he is currently in Vilnius (Lithuania) for the U-18 Division "A" European Championship, and has lifted the Azzurra to a 2-0 record after two days. Alessandro Gentile ('92) stopped today Turkey (99-74) with 31 points (10/15 FG), 7 rebounds and 2 steals, becoming the best tournament scorer (26.0) over turkish Safak Edge ('92, 18.5) and latvian Edmunds Dukulis ('92, 17.5). Not bad. Italy needs a good tournament to forget last bad results. We will see. Against turkish also shined guard Marco Ceron ('92) with 24 points and 4/7 threes. In the losing effort Safak Edge ('92), after yesterday's exhibition, today struggled (2 points in 13'), while Ugur Dokuyan ('93) was his best player with 15 points and 6/7 FG, helped by guard Can Korkmaz ('92) with 11 and 4 assists. In the other game of group C Russia crashed Bulgaria (88-57), so many russian players could rest for next days. 27-5 in the first quarter? True. Gleb Goldyrev ('93) scored 13 with 5/7 FG and Artem Pisarchuk ('92) added 11 in 16 minutes for winners. At bulgarian squad small-forward Aleks Simeonov ('93) poured 14 points dishing 5 assists and Pavlin Ivanov ('93), from Benetton Treviso, nailed 14 even 2/10 from downtown.
Group C: Italy (2-0), Russia (1-1), Turkey (1-1) and Bulgaria (0-2).
Let's see what happened in group A. Lithuania remains unbeaten after crashing the young Poland (66-87). Jonas Valanciunas ('92) made a huge double-double (16 points, 18 rebounds and 2 blocks) against big Przemek Karnowski ('93), who finished with 13 points, 7 boards and 3 blocks. For lithuanians Deividas Pukis ('92) also made a good job with 16 points and 4/8 from downtown, while at polish squad Mateusz Ponitka ('93) nailed 11 with 2/5 threes. In the other game Ukraine couldn't add its first win after losing against Slovenia (59-79). Marko Pajic ('92), like the first day, finished as the best slovenian with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 1 steal, while Matej Rojc ('93) added 12 with 4 rebounds. At ukranian squad, that battled until half time, 2.10 center Olexiy Len ('93) flirted with the triple-double (21 points, 12 rebounds and 8 blocks) and guard Klym Artamonov ('93) scored 13 with 4 assists.
Group A: Lithuania (2-0), Slovenia (1-1), Poland (1-1) and Ukraine (0-2).
At group B Spain and Latvia are at the top of the standings after winning their second game in two days. Spaniards crashed Sweden (95-57) with Miki Servera ('92) scoring 17 points and dishing 5 assists and Joan Tomàs ('92) adding 16 and 7 boards. Team coached by Ricard Casas were winning by 23 at half-time. For swedish center Sebastian Norman ('92) nailed 12 pulling down 4 rebounds and forward Viktor Gaddefors ('92) added 8 and 2 boards. As a detail, spaniard Pierre Oriola ('92) and swedish Marcus Eriksson ('93) will play together for Manresa (ACB) next season. In the other contest of the group Latvia beat France in a tied game (61-58). Forward Edmunds Dukulis ('92) shined again with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists, helped by Andris Misters ('92) with 12 and 5/10 FG. For the Bleus (with Fournier, Westermann and Pourchot injured) huge Rudy Gobert ('92) finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks, and small-forward Valentin Bigote ('92) poured 16 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Group B: Spain (2-0), Latvia (2-0), France (0-2) and Sweden (0-2).
Finally, in group D, Greece made another perfect defense and beat Serbia 59-57 with all-around Linos Chrysikopoulos ('92) in a great level and playing in many positions: 25 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Anastasios Antonakis ('92) helped with 10 points and 8 rebounds. At balcanic side Marko Gujanicic ('92) was too alone as the only player to score more than nine points: 17 and 9 boards. His teammate Djordje Drenovac ('92) poured 9 with 4/6 twos. In the first day team coached by George Vlassopoulos left Germany in only 55 points. Not bad. In the other game people attending the Siemens Arena could follow the number 1 of Eurohopes '94: Darijo Saric. The forward led Croatia against Germany (81-73) with a great show: 22 points (3/3 threes), 4 rebounds and 3 steals in 29 minutes. Beside him guard Roko Rogic ('92) nailed also 22, in this case with 5/7 threes. For germans power-forward Dennis Kramer ('92) had 25 points with 10/15 FG and Philipp Neumann ('92) didn't shine as usual: 14 points and 7 boards.
Group D: Greece (2-0), Serbia (1-1), Croatia (1-1) and Germany (0-2).
Photo: FIBA Europe
